After its 2020 revival was curtailed (along with all other live theatre) The Red Shoes is back with a triumphant new UK tour, and it gives seven performances at the Liverpool Empire this week.
Whilst his company New Adventures has become synonymous with his now legendary reworking of Swan Lake, Matthew Bourne’s style is perhaps consolidated more than anything in works that he has created for the stage from the ground up, including The Midnight Bell (which has appeared twice at the Liverpool Playhouse) and The Red Shoes. Based on the equally groundbreaking 1948 Powell and Pressburger film, itself inspired by Hans Christian Anderson, Bourne’s theatrical treatment follows the screenplay reasonably faithfully, so that familiarity with the film certainly helps in following the twists and turns of the serpentine plot.
When his prima ballerina Nadia is injured, Ballet impresario Boris Lermontov thrusts his new discovery Victoria Page into the leading role in a new work written for him by young composer Julian Craster. The ballet tells the story of a girl who is bewitched by a pair of red pointe shoes which dance her to her death. A whirlwind romance between Victoria and Julian puts the enamoured Lermontov’s nose seriously out of joint, and things begin to turn sour. After a period working in a seedy London music hall, Victoria leaves Julian and returns to Lermontov’s company, where her fate is sealed. Reality and fairytale begin to blur into one, and she follows her signature character’s red-shoed footsteps to a tragic end.
Bourne’s adaptation revels in the darkness of the main thread of the story, whilst introducing a great deal of lighthearted comedy to lift the tone at times and bring light and colour against which the grim narrative plays out with heightened contrast. This is further exaggerated by both Les Brotherston’s stunningly clever designs and Paule Constable’s lighting, which turn to a striking monochrome palette and stylised look for the ‘ballet-within-a-ballet’ sequences.
A floating proscenium arch which sweeps and rotates about the set begins as a device to transport us front and back stage, but eventually it becomes a metaphor for the swirling thoughts in Victoria’s mind and the blending of fantasy and reality as the story reaches its denouement.
This is astonishingly cinematic theatre-craft and could almost upstage the dancers if it were not for the extraordinary quality of their work. Bourne choreographs with a unique blend of classical and contemporary styles, and while there are some tremendous set pieces for the principals, there is so much background and character work going on too. This is a ballet that demands repeat viewing because there is such a lot happening that it is impossible to see all of it with one pair of eyes.
On press night Cordelia Braithwaite earned her ultimate standing ovation with a stunning performance as Victoria. She is paired here with not one but three dance partners in her big numbers, with Andy Monaghan as her amorous nemesis Lermontov, Dominic North as Julian, and Jackson Fisch as Ivan, her partner in Lermontov’s company. All three deliver performances of exquisite poise and precision.
They are supported by a crack shot company of dancers, almost two thirds of whom have built their careers with the help of the New Adventures talent development programme.
All of this is set to a musical backdrop arranged by Terry Davies from the film scores of Bernard Herrmann. Music is taken from, among others, Citizen Kane and Hangover Square, the latter dropping a clue to Bourne’s love of a certain period in film and literature that also surfaced in The Midnight Bell. Herrmann’s music is used to great effect throughout, and while there is lush romanticism in all the right places, it finds its greatest strength in the spectral, shimmering passages that accompany the more surreal and impressionistic scenes in the ballet.
This is masterful work from a company that puts one hundred percent into every detail that appears on stage. Such is the power of the spell it casts, even a first night technical hitch which paused Tuesday’s performance briefly was forgotten in moments once the curtain rose again.
The Red Shoes is a must see for all fans of Matthew Bourne’s work, and tickets are available here for this week’s Liverpool run. The tour then continues at a further eight venues through to May.
Star rating: 5 stars
Production Photography by Johan Persson
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
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